Flyers need to cash in on home ice

The Flyers’ Scott Hartnell (19) crashes into Winnipeg goaltender Ondrej Pavelec (31) after being interfered with by Jets’ Tobias Enstrom during Friday’s game in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Flyers’ next three games are at home, all against teams at .500 or worse. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, John Woods)

VOORHEES, N.J. — Don’t look now, but the Flyers are on a little bit of a run. They haven’t had a regulation loss — which a week or so ago would have been considered a typical outcome on game night — in their past four games.

Now, coming off a road trip in which they garnered five of a possible six points, the expectation in the Flyers locker room is that the good feelings will continue this week, with visits scheduled by the Ottawa Senators Tuesday, the Buffalo Sabres Thursday and New York Islanders Saturday.

Three home games against teams with a combined record of 21-35-8. Time to make hay at the Big Bank Building.

“We have to win these games,” Scott Hartnell said Sunday. “We have to dig ourselves out of the hole from the beginning of the season. We have to work our way out of this. In December there’s a lot of road games. That’s going to be kind of a tough stretch. So we have to make these games count.”

One problem with that: the Flyers haven’t shown much of an aptitude for doing that at Wells Fargo Center.

While they aren’t in the league of their city’s football team — the victory the Eagles almost gave away Sunday to the Redskins ended a 10-game home losing streak — the Flyers have won just three times in 10 home games this season.

“We don’t like to hear boos in our building,” Hartnell said. “It sucks when you’re trying hard and you hear them. But we can do better there; we can score and win games. Then they’ll be happy.”

While winning in Ottawa and Pittsburgh and taking away a tired point in a shootout loss in Winnipeg is encouraging, the Flyers know that once they get through this week any semblance of home-ice advantage is going to be lost for a while. Beyond hosting the Isles, eight of the Flyers’ next nine games are on the road.

“It’s only four games,” said Steve Downie, referring to the Flyers’ current run of success. “So we have to build on that. We had a good road trip but we’re still out of (a playoff spot). So we’ve got a lot of work to do. We have to stay focused and keep getting better every day.”

“We have to get excited by these home games,” Hartnell added. “I think we’ve been tentative; waiting for the boos and not playing Flyers hockey. So we have to be intense, be passionate, have effort. All that kind of stuff.”

Obviously, that’s what coach Craig Berube has been preaching to his team because he’s concerned not only about performances, but the attitude with which his players approach home games. Ten games might be a small sample, but it’s trending away from what the Flyers have been in recent seasons.

Even last season’s underachievers went 15-7-2 in 24 home games during the labor-shortened 2012-2013 season. Over the previous five full seasons, the Flyers averaged nearly 23 home victories per season.

Berube knows this team, which is still in the Metropolitan Division basement and has scored the least amount of goals in the league, is going to have to get back to that kind of swagger at home.

“We need to get a little bit of a different mindset at home here and take it to teams,” Berube said. “It’s our building. We need to get our fans behind us and get it going.

“It’s about pushing the level out there. We’re at home. We need to get going, skate and get on teams and make it difficult for teams to come into our building and (let them) know that coming in. That’s what we need to get to; make teams realize they’re coming into our building and it’s going to be a tough game.”

NOTES: Forward Michael Raffl, who was hit by a stomach flu during the road trip, was back at practice Sunday and reported, “it’s much better.” ... Downie, his left eye a couple of shades less purple, took off the full cage and donned his half-shield for practice. “The comfort level is getting there,” Downie said. “I feel better every day.”